Chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak and the head of BHC legal commission Hary Pahaniayla sent petitions asking to take Ales Bialiatsi on suretyship under their personal guarantee. Guarantees will be collected throughout the world, and human rights defenders believe that many of the world-famous personalities will sign this statement.

"We demand his immediate release from custody and use of another measure of restriction – personal guarantee. We have already sent such guarantees to the preliminary investigation section of Department of financial investigation for Minsk region and the city of Minsk. The investigator is obliged to consider this application over a period of three days. Our task is to use all possible means in order to release Bialiatski from custody as there are no reason to detain him. If the state has some claims let it clarify them. Meanwhile, Bialiatski can be free and offer explanations. However, it is absolutely uncivilised to take him into custody for a debt", – said Hary Pahaniayla (left).

At the present moment human rights defender managed to collect In Belarus more than 100 signatures for release Ales Bialiatski from custody under personal guarantee.

"We’ve anounced the collection of signatures only yesterday, and today we already have more than a hundred. People are coming by themselves. Just recently here was Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu with his wife, the statement was also signed by Aliaksandr Fiaduta, Zhana Litvina, Aleh Hulak, Hary Pahaniayla and many other known personalities. We actively collect signatures not only in Minsk, but all around Belarus as well. We expect to bring to the Prosecutor’s office no less than a thousand signatures for Ales Bialiatski very soon", – informed Uladzimir Labkovich from "Viasna"(right).

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Bialiatski was detained near the Victory Square in Minsk and brought to the office of his NGO for a search.His apartment in Minsk and summer house outside the Belarusian capital were also searched. As he managed to tell his colleagues by phone, he is charged with ‘tax evasion’.

According to the Department of financial investigation of Committee on governmental control, Ales Bialiatski has to pay around 150 million rubles or 29 thousand US dollars at National Bank exchange rate, from the money transferred to his account in Lithuanian bank.

The colleagues of Bialiatski say that this funds were directed to help the victims of Belarusian regime. In 2003, licence of "Viasna" was cancelled, therefore the human rights defenders had to look for different ways to continue their activity.

Article 243.2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code “Tax evasion on an especially large scale” provides for an imprisonment for up to seven years and confiscation of property.

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